February 2019 Newsletter

2nd Global Constructive Journalism Conference

- videos and presentations online!

Our 2nd Global Constructive Journalism conference that took place in Geneva proved to be a great success - 93% of participants said that the conference inspired them to apply constructive journalism principles in their work.

If you were not able to make it or would like to revisit what was said at the event, we have prepared a video summarising the key points of the day:

If you have not yet seen it, watch our campaign video for a more responsible journalism, created pro bono by Mindshare and distributed by Group M: https://vimeo.com/312112075

Danish Minister of Culture, Mette Bock, visited our fellows at the Constructive Institute on 8 February 2019: “As a politician you can only get in the news if you say something stupid, outrageous or funny. Constructive Institute does a very important job not only for journalism, but for democracy.”

We are proud to include Christian Erfurt, CEO and co-founder of social startup Be My Eyes, in our Advisory Board. Be My Eyes uses technology to connect 100 blind people in more than 100 countries with close to a million volunteers using trust and good will as driving forces. Here are Christian's words about himself: “I am an entrepreneur and speaker - I am a dreamer, a believer, a darer and a doer. My passion is innovation, personal development, changing paradigms, people and the adventures of life." Read more about Christian's fascinating life story: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianerfurt/

Column Right:

Upcoming months at the Institute

27 Feb: Talk for The Times newsroom in London

27 Feb: Participate in the launch of the BBC Program Crossing Divides in London

28 Feb: Talk for the National Association of Danish Humanitarian foundations in Denmark

7-8 March: Discussion on democracy with major global foundations in New York

March & April: Workshops for journalism schools in Tallinn, Estonia on 12 March, in Vilnius, Lithuania on 13 March and in Riga, Latvia on 3 April

2 April: Panel at the worlds largest radio conference, Radio Days in Lausanne, Switzerland

Constructive Institute's workshop for Roulata media's 100 editors and reporters from the biggest magazine publisher in Belgium on 31 January 2019.

Network meeting at the Perugia Journalism Festival: 3-7 April 2019

We are increasingly looking to support Constructive News initiatives internationally and are excited about the great work that is being done across Europe and beyond. At our Global Conference we had two meetings where we connected with some fantastic Constructive Journalism practitioners and discussed the challenges and opportunities they faced. We are going to expand this and have a network meeting at the Journalism Festival in Perugia which runs from the 3-7 April. We will look at how we can help you carry out constructive journalism for your context. If you are attending the festival and are interested to connect, please email us with details of yourself and your work and we'll keep you updated on the time and location of the event.

Well written, thoroughly researched and elegantly presented, this book shows that the real power in changing democracy depends not only on attention-seeking politicians, managers in disguise as publishers, and cynical and disillusioned journalists chasing clicks and shares. It rests with the news consumer. Which kind of journalism do we as news consumers reward with our time money and attention? That’s what determines the future of journalism, media and democracy.